Celebrity
Chadwick Boseman Received His First Emmy Nomination For Marvel’s Animated Project
The late actor is just one of the posthumous nominees at the 2022 Emmys.
The Television Academy has honored Chadwick Boseman in an unexpected way. On July 12, when the 2022 Emmy nominees were announced, the late actor posthumously received his first Emmy nomination for his famous role as Black Panther’s groundbreaking superhero T’Challa. Boseman reprised T’Challa on Disney+’s 2021 animated series What If …?, which was recorded before his untimely death and is now nominated for Outstanding Character Voice-Over.
Boseman died of colon cancer, a diagnosis that he had kept hidden from the public eye, on Aug. 20, 2020, but his legacy as a beloved and critically acclaimed actor has lived on. The star has received multiple posthumous honors, including a SAG Award, Golden Globe Award, and Oscar nomination for his final onscreen performance in the Netflix film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, in which he starred alongside Viola Davis. His widow Simone Ledyard Boseman accepted most of these honors on his behalf, giving poignant acceptance speeches to remember her late husband.
Boseman’s estate posted about the Emmy nomination on Twitter, calling it an “incredible honor” and thanking the Television Academy.
Boseman isn’t the only posthumous nominee in the Outstanding Character Voice-Over category. Jessica Walter, who died in March 2021, was also nominated for her role as matriarch Malory Archer on FX’s animated series Archer. The two late actors will face off against Julie Andrews for Bridgerton, Maya Rudolph for Big Mouth, Stanley Tucci for Central Park, F. Murray Abraham for Moon Knight, and Jeffery Wright, who’s also nominated for What If...? alongside Boseman.
At the time of his death, Boseman was preparing to step into the shoes of T’Challa again for the Black Panther sequel. Instead, his What If...? episode, “What If … T’Challa Became a Star-Lord?,” ended up marking his final performance within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Director Ryan Coogler moved forward on the sequel in his honor, giving it the title Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The film is scheduled to be released in theaters on Nov. 11, 2022.
